REVEALED - The No.1 UK city for business-friendly golf clubs

It was voted the world’s friendliest city by users of top travel website RoughGuides.com in 2016.

Now, Glasgow has been named the No.1 city in the UK for business-friendly golf clubs.

This is the finding of GolfSupport.com, which reviewed 218 clubs from 17 different prominent business hubs across the country.

Their research found that Glasgow has the highest proportion of golf clubs that offer corporate memberships to businesses (46%). That was narrowly better than Cambridge (43%) and Bristol (42%). Birmingham (40%) and Aberdeen rounded out the top five.

Three cities – Leeds, Newcastle and Nottingham – propped up the leaderboard. Golfsupport.com found that none of the combined 27 clubs they reviewed in these cities offered corporate memberships.

Of the clubs reviewed, Filton GC in Bristol was found to offer the best price (£835 inclusive of VAT) for a corporate membership. It was closely followed by Cowglen in Glasgow (£840) with another Glasgow club, Crow Wood, the only other coming in under £1,000.

Interestingly, almost three-quarters (74%) of the 218 golf clubs assessed do not currently have a single corporate membership option available for businesses in their pricing structure.

This is despite an independent survey conducted by GolfSupport.com finding that 64% of 258 businesses, in a range of industries, it polled across England and Scotland stating an interest in a corporate membership scheme to entertain their clients and/or treat employees.

“Away from the contained and stressful setting of an office environment, the calm nature of golf lends itself perfectly to businesses seeking to better connect with their clients as well as employees,” remarked Gary Swift, the managing director of GolfSupport.com.

“Therefore, it’s highly surprising more golf clubs are not providing a corporate membership scheme exclusively for businesses in their pricing structure. If golf clubs get the price right, this research certainly shows that there is an encouraging demand for corporate memberships”.